“Hunting for Colour” by Prof Adam Hart, who disagrees with the notion of profit and long-term conservation concerning the game industry, seems to be living in an ivory tower and ignores the Third World realities of South Africa.
The wild game industry has had an exceptional run in the past few years and here the famous buffaloes such as Horison which reached a record price, were remarkable.
The craze extended to all types of game.
Sable, nyalas, springboks all were not spared.
To have any farm in South Africa is no joke.
Water, staff, pests, predators, theft, price cycles, climate, veld fires, poachers, security, input costs and general condition of crops and stock are critical issues.
Large-scale farming is labour, management, skill and capital intensive. We are fortunate to have a team of farmers whose passion often exceeds financial returns and it is said a dairy farm is jail with no doors. Profit is the by product.
For the wild game industry legendary breeders such as Piet du Toit (an ex teacher), Peter Hume, Dries Visser, the Kroon Stud breeders, Jules of the Karoo, Tina de Jager (who only travels by chopper) and Piet Warren are tried and tested people who built up their game farms under the harshest circumstances.
Google these farmers and you can learn a lot.
The assets side of their lifestyle and balance sheet looks good.
Off road vehicles, choppers, tractors and a large farm house.
Has any one seen the liabilities?
To see where many of these first-generation farmers started and the time it took, is amazing.
Survival and adaptability is key, such as Warren who had an abattoir and needed an outlet for his waste, non-fit, non-saleable meat.
After trying every disposal method the solution was a few lions. What an eco friendly way of disposing abbatoir waste.
Rhino horn is going to be a big business and watch this develop.
All wild game prices have dropped and the colour variants were unrealistic and basically these were chequebook city farmers offloading their surplus cash.
Lucky for the farmers who held out and sold at the top end of the market.
Their years and being the butt of jokes paid off and many laughed all the way to the bank.
This shows we have a thriving free market where supply and demand and willing buyer and willing seller meet.
South Africa has a massive private game industry and for people in coastal and urban areas, this is often overlooked.
The allied businesses are overlooked.
Lodges, off road vehicles, feed, vets, tourism, game capture and transport and here choppers are used.
Visit the towns in the North West/OFS along the Vaal river and often you may just drive past a board saying a lion farm in the middle of nowhere.
Someone is paying for this and with a healthy thriving wild game industry this ensures a healthy species with top genetics and lots of jobs and capital invested in land that is often not even good for cattle farming let alone crops.
While one may criticise one aspect of game farming, one has to see the wild game industry in its totality to see the advantages and hopefully not only will you have different colour animals but different colour game breeders too.